Follow Heroes

Ali Larter, Sendhil Ramamurthy Speak on Heroes Past and Future

Weeks before season two of Heroes, a pair of of its bigger stars sat down for an interview.

Here's what Ali Larter and Sendhil Ramamurthy had to say about the past and future of their characters - and our favorite show...

IGN TV: How far into production are you on Season 2? Sendhil Ramamurthy: We're in the middle of the third episode.

IGN TV: A year ago you were here with the show before it premiered, having no idea how it would go over. What's it been like in the past 12 months seeing it explode the way it has?Ali Larter: I'm always anxious to hear what everyone else says to these things. It has been an absolutely amazing year. What I think is so incredible is that I feel stimulated creatively, and we took a lot of risks on the show in the first season. And to be able to feel fulfilled on that side of it is for me the most important thing as an actor. But to also have this appeal, on this global level, is extraordinary. It's extraordinary that we really touched a cord.

Ramamurthy: Bouncing off her and what she said about a global level, it really is like a global thing. I was traveling around over the hiatus and I was in France and England and Mexico, and everybody knew the show; everybody knew who we were. I mean it really is nuts. You can hope to be on a hit show, but to be on a show that's kind of like branched out, like this has, I don't even know…

IGN TV: Sendhil, I remember talking to you on the set before the show had debuted, and you were telling me how you and Milo Ventimiglia were so excited just to see the big billboard painting on the side of NBC, and were going there to take pictures of it.Ramamurthy: I still have that picture on my phone!

IGN TV: I know you guys have to be very secretive, but can you talk at all about where Season 2 picks up? Ramamurthy: Season 2… I can tell you this. Season 2 picks up four months after Season 1 ended.
[At this point Larter taps Ramamurthy on his shoulder and nods towards some nearby girls] Larter: These girls just looked over and went "Oh my god! Oh my god, there he is!" I swear! Ramamurthy: [Laughs] The best thing about the show is standing next to her. Larter: [Miming fans] "Ahhh!" Sendhil, do the girls come up to you and fawn? Because as a girl, you know guys aren't like "Oh, you're so lovely." They're like "How you doing?" or they hit on you.

IGN TV: But the girls get into more of the shrieking thing, right? Ramamurthy: Listen, they pretty much leave me alone, because I'm mostly out and about with my wife. But a few come up… Larter: And she's got a big ol' ring on her finger. Ramamurthy: Yeah, exactly.

IGN TV: So where do we find your characters as we join them four months later? Ramamurthy: Right now I guess I can say my character is undercover. He's grown a big old set of balls. He's generally kind of done a 180 from the first season, which is exciting as an actor to play something new.

IGN TV: Ali, last season you were playing two different characters, but Niki seemed to have integrated Jessica and come out as the dominant personality by the end of the year. Larter: There's definitely been an integration, and you know, it's all Niki now. Just Niki; that's all you get, which is great. I think that it's about focusing it on the things that worked last year, and really kind of tightening up the storyline.

IGN TV: Last year I learned from some of your costars that Masi Oka is particularly good at prying information about what's to come out of the producers. Do you guys make attempts to do the same thing? Larter: We get nothing! Ramamurthy: Yeah, I get nothing. I've kind of stopped trying. I kind of just go with the flow and you trust them, and you just see what happens.